


Happiness Is Where You Are

by Chash



Series: Charity Drive 2017 [3]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Babysitting, Established Relationship, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-08
Updated: 2017-02-08
Packaged: 2018-09-22 19:17:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9621878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chash/pseuds/Chash
Summary: Raven and Clarke know babysitting really isn't a big deal. They interact with Bellamy's niece and nephew fairly regularly. They're competent.It still feels like a big deal to have the kids for a whole day.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [samsjazz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/samsjazz/gifts).



Raven isn't _against_ children, as a concept. Well, actually, she might be against them as a concept, but that's mostly based in her hesitance about the number of humans in the world and adding to that number. Especially with the number of unwanted humans in the world. She's against children in the numbers in which they currently exist, and she has no desire to bring any into the world herself. But she's not against interacting with them.

In theory.

In practice, when Bellamy says, "My sister needs us to watch the kids," she looks and Clarke, and Clarke looks at her, and she knows they're thinking the same thing. Namely, Bellamy's good with kids, and they're both kind of scared of them, and Bellamy is convinced this is a fear that can be overcome.

"Both of them?" Clarke asks, wary.

Bellamy snorts. "Wow. Your excitement is bowling me over, princess."

"Isn't one of them really small?" Raven adds.

"Adam is five and Carter is eighteen months. This is really not a big deal. They're just kids."

"Says the guy who was raising a kid before he hit puberty," she points out.

"We don't even have siblings," Clarke adds.

He huffs. "So, what, you're gonna make me do it alone? You _like_ Adam and Carter. And me. I'm pretty sure."

"More Adam," Clarke says. "Carter isn't really a person yet. She just gnaws on things and drools. And you're okay," she adds, after a deliberate pause.

"Hey, she's walking now, so she keeps running into things and trying to fight them. Definitely her mother's daughter." He looks over at Raven. "Come on, it's just for a day."

"Wait, a whole _day_?" asks Raven.

"Lincoln wants to take O out for her birthday. You know how long it's been since they got a day to themselves?"

"Five years, give or take?" Clarke teases.

He really thinks about it. "Like three? While O was pregnant I took Adam for a long weekend so she and Lincoln could go to a B&B."

Clarke pecks his cheek. "You're a good brother."

"You want to steal her kids," Raven says, and he grins.

"I like kids. Loaner kids are even better."

Clarke catches her lip in her teeth, and Raven knows what she's thinking this time too. She and Clarke have been together the longest of the three of them, even if Raven technically met--and fucked--Bellamy not long after she and Clarke met, and before the two of them started dating. But he didn't get involved in the relationship until he and Clarke started working together, and he and Raven met again, and the three of them started spending more and more time together, until they all decided it was something they could try.

It's going well--amazingly, even--but Raven still sometimes feels like it can't be this easy, and kids are one of the ways it feels like it shouldn't be. She and Clarke had been on the same page, happy to remain childfree forever, and Bellamy's never said he's opposed to that, has even said he doesn't mind not having any.

But he _loves_ kids.

"When are we taking them?" Clarke asks, because there's no way they're saying no to this. They wouldn't have no matter what. Babysitting isn't hard. And they do like the kids, really.

Plus, he wants to.

"Saturday," he says. "It's going to be fun."

"We better get _really_ laid," says Raven, and he gives her a somewhat patronizing smile.

"Yeah, come on. That goes without saying."

*

They spend Friday night attempting to whip the apartment into shape.

"This is how we know we're old, right?" Clarke asks, like she isn't the youngest of the three of them. "We're spending our Friday night cleaning and babyproofing."

"Speak for yourself, this is how I've been spending my Friday nights for years," Bellamy shoots back.

"This is why you were still single when we met you."

"Yeah, wow," he says. "Clearly I was living my life wrong. Single at thirty-two, staying at home on Friday nights, that totally didn't work out for me. I'm not in a fulfilling relationship with two beautiful women."

"Yeah, but that was sheer dumb luck," says Raven. "Statistically speaking, you should be collecting stamps or something."

"Come on, it's the twenty-first century. I'd collect Magic cards. Monty would help."

"As long as you've got a plan." She glances over at Clarke. "That reminds me, you got an itinerary for tomorrow yet?"

Clarke rolls her eyes. "No, I learned my lesson when we took them to the zoo. I'm not going to even try to control them." Raven just gives her a look, and when Bellamy joins in, she wilts. "It's not an _itinerary_ ," she says. "It's an activity list! If we run out of things to do, we have ideas. Just in case."

Raven laughs and leans over to kiss her. "Yeah, never mind. That's totally normal."

"You're going to be grateful tomorrow when they're bored and I have an idea for what to do with them," she grumbles.

"You're both worrying about this way too much," Bellamy puts in. "We're going to have them for ten hours, max. Carter's going to be asleep half the time. And Adam's easy to please."

"You're going to be grateful for the itinerary too."

He comes over to sit on Clarke's other side, and gives her a kiss himself. "Deeply." His smile is soft. "I'd be more grateful if you guys just took a breath and didn't freak out every time I want to take care of my sister's kids, though. I know you're not into reproducing. This isn't the first step of a fucked up master plan to convince you to have babies."

Clarke leans against his side, snuggling up close, and Raven meets his eye over her head. "That's just what you'd say if this was the first step of a master plan to convince us to have babies," she says, and he snorts.

"No way. If this was part of a master plan, I'd be doing way better. I wasn't actually prepared for this level of freaking out."

"We're not freaking out," says Raven, at the same time Clarke says, "But you _like kids_."

He kisses Clarke's hair. "You like milk, but you don't mind buying soy instead because I'm lactose intolerant. Babysitting is my version of you getting real ice cream when we go out to dinner."

There's a pause, and Raven's the one to break it. "Wow. Please tell me you hadn't thought about that before, because it's a shitty metaphor."

"You wish you had my way with words," he says. 

"Yeah, it keeps me up at night." She leans into Clarke's side too, snuggling in. "So, babysitting with no ulterior motives, Blake?"

"The ulterior motive is that I want to hang out with my niece and nephew." He pauses. "But we should probably have a serious conversation about kids at some point."

"What, your lactose intolerance metaphor wasn't enough?" Clarke teases, sliding her hand under the hem of his shirt. "You worked so hard on it."

"I hate you guys," he mutters.

"That sounds like something someone who doesn't want to get laid would say," says Raven, propping her shoulder on Clarke's shoulder. "Right?"

"Just like that," Clarke agrees.

"Let's not get carried away," he protests, and when Clarke tugs him up, he follows them into the bedroom, laughing.

Definitely a serious conversation for another day.

*

Lincoln drops the kids off just after nine in the morning, which isn't bad. It's not the kids themselves who are intimidating. Bellamy takes Carter out of Lincoln's arms, and Adam bounces over to show Raven and Clarke the new Duplo airplane he got, and that's all fine.

But then Lincoln brings out the _stuff_.

Raven likes Lincoln, she really does. But she recognizes that some people find her intimidatingly and kind of terrifyingly smart, and that's how she feels about Lincoln, except with competence and kindness. Lincoln is a good person on a level that Raven can barely comprehend, and he makes the rest of them look bad without even trying. If he wasn't so great, she'd hate him. But that's literally impossible.

"We'll be back tonight, this should be everything you need."

"This would get us through a week," Bellamy says, because he's in a position to say that. Raven would believe all this was necessary for a single day. She doesn't know. 

"I don't want you to have to pick anything up. You're doing us a favor, you shouldn't have to get supplies too."

"Clarke already came up with an activity list, so we're set," Raven says. She glances at Adam. "You ready for some carefully scheduled fun, kid?"

Adam bounces. "Mom said we could make cookies."

"That's your mom," says Bellamy, with a fond roll of his eyes. "Always making promises I have to keep."

They get everything inside in one trip, mostly because in addition to being the nicest person in the history of the world, Lincoln is also built like a tank, and he gives them all a big smile.

"Thank you again for doing this. We really appreciate it."

Bellamy shifts Carter in his arms and gives her a bounce. "No problem. You guys have fun at the spa."

"Spas sound _boring_ ," says Adam.

Lincoln leans down to kiss his forehead. "Yes, that's why we aren't making you come along. Be good for Uncle Bellamy and Aunt Raven and Aunt Clarke. We'll be pretty late coming to get you. You might be asleep by the time we get back."

"I can stay up!" he protests.

"Maybe you can, but I'm not sure I can," says Bellamy. "We'll see how it goes." 

Lincoln hesitates for another second, like leaving both his children is a step beyond what he's capable of, but Bellamy waves, and that's enough to assure him he can leave.

And then it's just the five of them in the apartment.

Carter's mostly asleep already, so Bellamy settles her into the basket Lincoln brought while Clarke and Raven turn their attention to Adam.

"We're making cookies?" Raven asks.

"There's a bake sale at school," he says. "Mom said Uncle Bell could help. But we don't have to!" he adds. "Dad said we can do it at home."

Clarke and Raven exchange a look; Clarke smiles, and Raven does too. "I think we can probably handle cookies," she says. "What kind?"

Raven and Clarke aren't really great cooks, but they're both competent bakers, and if they do the cookies, Bellamy can be on Carter duty. Which is important, because at eighteen months, Carter seems to have two basic modes: asleep, and trying to bite everything she sees. Raven would much rather Bellamy handle it than her. 

But the baking is pretty easy. Lincoln packed all the ingredients, and recipe, and a note saying it was no big deal if they _didn't_ make the cookies, but he thought they might like to have a ready activity Adam was excited about.

Seriously, there must be some kind of _trick_ to Lincoln. No one can be that nice. He's probably a spy.

Raven's leg keeps her from staying on her feet for too long, so she sits at the counter and preps the baking trays and watches Clarke and Adam do most of the mixing. It doesn't make her feel maternal, exactly, not even when Bellamy comes over to stand behind her, sliding one arm around her waist and resting his head against on her shoulder. She still doesn't feel any need to reproduce.

But he might have a point. It's really not so bad.

"How's Carter doing?" she asks him.

"Actually looking at her book," he says. "I give it maybe three minutes before she comes over here and starts biting my ankles."

"Yeah, sounds right." She leans back into him. "We'll have decorating to do when they're done, if you want to help with that."

"We'll probably supervise. Clarke's the artist, anyway."

"Just because I worked at it," says Clarke. "Anyone can be an artist. Your only problem is your self-defeating attitude."

"That's definitely not my only problem."

She grins. "Okay, well. The only thing stopping you from being an artist."

"Not sure about that either, but it sounds a lot more plausible." He presses a kiss to Raven's shoulder. "Let me know when there's frosting to do."

The cookies have to bake first, of course, so they watch some mindless kids' show Adam likes on Netflix until they're done and cool, and then they decorate them, and by that point it's lunch time, so Bellamy makes everyone grilled cheese sandwiches, and they eat those watching more of the Netflix show. That's the point when Raven starts to worry, because she's not sure what the post-lunch plan looks like. They still have a whole afternoon and evening. It's so much _time_.

"You're thinking my activity list sounds pretty good right now, aren't you?" Clarke asks, leaning in, and Raven pecks her on the mouth.

"Yeah, I'll take whatever you've got."

"This is why you should be really grateful for your little sister," Bellamy tells Adam. "If you grow up without siblings, you never learn how to interact with other people right."

"Because you're a shining example of how to interact with other people right," says Raven, and he pauses, inclines his head.

"Yeah, fair point. What have you got, Clarke?"

And, really, it's a pretty fun afternoon. They do some art, some reading, and they eat just a few cookies, to make sure they turned out okay. Lincoln packed plenty of Adam's own toys, which he's happy to play with by himself, and there's always this awareness that they're around, and that they might need help, but--it's not as bad as she thought it would be. Dinner's good, she likes the kid, and Carter stops gnawing her when she picks her up and starts gnawing on something else and babbling.

It's pretty cute.

Adam insists he's _not tired_ , but does end up falling asleep while they watch TV, and Bellamy picks him up and takes him to the guest room, and Clarke leans against Raven.

"He'd be a really good dad," she points out, soft.

"And I'd be a really good astronaut, but I'm not," Raven shoots back. It sounds harsher than she really meant it. "You changing your mind? It's cool if you are. We could think about it."

"Not changing my mind, just--it's never been a dealbreaker for me, I guess. If it is for him, I think we could be a pretty good family."

"It's not for him," Raven says, and she's sure of that. "I always figured if I was going to have kids, I'd adopt. That's still what I'd want to do. But I'm pretty sure that would be a huge pain."

Bellamy sits down on her other side. "Yeah, I've looked into that a little. Not because it's a dealbreaker," he adds. "It seriously isn't. But I was curious what fostering or adoption would look like for us." He quirks his mouth in a strange smile. "No offense, but if you guys are interested in that, you should decide soon, because it's probably going to take a while."

"Yeah?" asks Clarke.

"None of us are married, none of us are getting married. We're in a stable committed relationship, but there are three of us. If you ask me, that's a plus. I had like half a parent, I would have killed for three good adults who cared about me and O. But it'd probably be hard to find an adoption agency that agreed with that. If you wanted to," he adds, quickly. "I cannot overstate how okay I am with not doing this. I still don't have ulterior motives."

"But you were looking," says Clarke.

"And don't say that thing about being lactose intolerant again, that wasn't convincing the first time."

"Jesus, fine, I won't. I get it, it was a bad analogy." He leans down and kisses Raven, and then Clarke. "I love you guys. I was curious."

"But you'd vote yes," Clarke says, shifting closer to Raven. "If we were going to do it democratically."

"Yeah, uh, having kids in any way has to be unanimous," he says quickly. "We're not doing majority rules for that. Enthusiastic consent, seriously."

"But you would."

"Clarke--"

"I would too," she says. "If you guys wanted. Adopting. I'm with Raven, I know too much about pregnancy to want to have a baby."

"If it's gonna take a while, we should get started," Raven adds.

"Seriously, I didn't have an evil babysitting scheme," Bellamy protests. "I wasn't fishing for this."

"You're just that persuasive," says Clarke. "Besides, we're just looking into it, right? Maybe no one's going to let us adopt because of our deviant lifestyle."

"That makes me feel better." He drops his head back onto the couch, closing his eyes. "We're taking them for a whole weekend first. And I'm going to leave you alone with them for at least an hour. There's no way we're getting a kid and I do all the work." 

Clarke thinks it over for a second, but of course she's on board for more of a trial run. "Good idea."

"You don't even want to get started with an agency first?" Raven asks. She's pretty sure they're going to have a shitload of trouble. It takes a while even for some married couples to find kids, and a lot of people are going to write them off without thinking about it. Which is fucking stupid, but--it's the world.

He doesn't open his eyes. "I meant it. I love you two a lot more than I care about having kids. If we adopted and it ended up not being what you wanted, I'd--fuck. We're gonna be sure."

Clarke's smile softens, and she leans across Raven to kiss his cheek.

"We love you too," she says. "Don't worry, Bellamy. We're not gonna let you lose us."

"Still," he says, gruff. "We could babysit more, right? Either way."

The kids are asleep, but she's still aware of them in the apartment, making it feel warm and full. A nice feeling. And it still feels like she doesn't _need_ kids. If they never got them, she'd be happy.

But she's like Bellamy. She had about half a parent, and there are plenty of kids in the world with even less than that. And between the three of them, they make a pretty good family. 

She's never going to personally add to the number of children in the world. That's a hard no. But it's not the only option.

"That's a good start, yeah," says Clarke, when Raven's quiet. "I already have the activity list, so we're set."

Bellamy snorts. "Yeah, the activity list. That's definitely the most important thing." His hand finds Raven's, and he squeezes. "What about you?"

"Yeah," she says, gives him a smile so he knows she means it. "Babysitting is cool. Let's go from there."

*

It does take a while to get everything sorted out. But even before they get started, they're all sure. Enthusiastic, like Bellamy said. They do research and prepare arguments and find sympathetic agencies, and even so, it takes a while before they're finally matched with a kid, a four-year-old girl whose parents couldn't keep her.

And she's worth the wait.


End file.
